Combat Commander Tips for Beginners

Those of you who have spent any time following this blog (not just reading a post or two here and there) know that Combat Commander (from GMT Games) is one of my favourite games out there.

I’m even part of a monthly ladder tournament where we get to play once a month, and many people are open to pick-up games here and there.

This means that I’ve played Combat Commander: Europe a total of 56 times and Combat Commander: Pacific a total of 15 times.

So I do know a little bit about the game, but nowhere near as much as a lot of my friends.

While I don’t think I can really write an overall strategy guide, I can suggest some helpful tips for beginners to keep in mind as they are getting their feet wet in this marvelous tactical wargame system.

I’m not going to go into all the rules and how everything works.

If you’re not sure of that, there’s a rulebook as well as a number of video playthroughs that will teach the game.

I’m going to assume you know the basics, things like how you “roll dice”, how you play cards, how many cards you can play on your turn, what a Sniper or Event trigger is, how the game ends, that sort of thing.

Instead, once you have those down, here are some tips to take you to the next level.

Tier 2, you might say.

All of my pictures are going to be from the VASSAL module for the game, which I have used literally every month since July 2021.

Also, most pictures are staged just to illustrate my point.

They are mostly not from games I’ve played and thus some of the setup may not be optimum to actually win the game.

Also, if you want to see my good friend Zilla Blitz and I talk about these in a video, why not do that too!

With that, let’s begin.

Number 1: Don’t Forget Your Actions

The first rule that I would say to keep in mind, because they can be crucial and sometimes a new player might forget, is to make sure you’re aware of what Action cards you have in your hand.

As you know, cards have both an Order and an Action (and Fire cards can be used as either an Order or an Action).

(You can click on a picture to blow it up)

Actions can be done when the requirements on the card are met (or Fire actions are just done when your opponent is moving.)

The Orders are at the top (Fire or Artillery Denied in the pic above) and the Actions are in the middle (though as I said, Fire cards can also be an action).

So the actions available above are Smoke Grenades, Light Wounds, and Dig In.

They all have specific times they can be used.

Light Wounds is when a US squad is about to break. You can play that Action to instead reduce it to a Team but keep that Team on the board.

Smoke Grenades can be used when a unit with boxed Movement is about to Move. You can then place smoke in an adjacent hex.

Dig In is only used after a Time Trigger.

Don’t forget your actions!

They are very important.

Which brings us to…

Number 2: Tips for being on Defense

Defense-only Actions are very valuable when the scenario puts you in Defense posture.

First, if you’re not on Defense, then these Actions are useless and may just clog your deck, but if you are, you will learn to love them.

Bore Sighting will give your nasty machine gun a +2 firepower when firing (it has to be an MG with firepower 5 or more, though).

Hidden Mines and Hidden Wire can be really nasty surprises when the Attacker is coming towards your lines.

You may not have a Fire card, but Wire will stop them cold and Mines will attack them at 6 firepower, but most importantly there is no Cover bonus to their morale.

Doesn’t matter if it’s in a building. It’s still just a straight morale check.

And will also hit them when they try to leave.

Hidden Entrenchment can save some of your guys if they happen to be out in the open (or even just in some woods).

If they are fired on, you can play this Action to put foxholes in the hex, giving them some more cover.

I don’t think the Americans have a Pillbox, but a hidden Pillbox can make any objective hex suddenly +5 cover.

The most fun, of course, is the Hidden Unit.

When your opponent discards, you can play this Action to roll on the Reinforcement Table and get a new unit (not a radio, sadly), which can set up in any empty setup hex with at least one Cover.

So you can’t set the unit up behind your opponent’s original lines, but if they’ve made some advances, you can set them up behind their current lines!

This can be a lifesaver if you need a leader because all of your other ones are dead or broken, or you just want to cause trouble by taking objectives.

In this scenario, the Americans have made some headway against the Germans, advancing past Objective 3 & 4.

They have to discard and suddenly there’s a German squad back in Objective 3!

That’s not good.

In my experience, Hidden Units are often just a bolster to your leadership because you’ve lost one.

But that’s not always the case.

There are a great many uses depending on the circumstances.

The other thing about being on Defense is that Time is your friend.

At least until it’s not.

What does that mean?

Each Time Trigger, you will get 1 VP, and you will almost always start with a VP lead.

You’d love the scenario to end right now if you just want to win without, you know, having fun.

The clock in the game is run by the two decks of cards, either from them running out or from them drawing a Time trigger during a draw.

It is often a good thing to cause the attacker (and yourself too) to just churn through cards.

While the option to form a massive firegroup is always there, it may not always be the best option.

First, each additional unit only gives you an additional +1 to the firepower, so how much are they helping versus doing their own 5-firepower attack?

Secondly, if you have a gun and two squads able to form a firegroup, why not fire 3 times and cause the Americans to draw 3 cards each attack?

That’s 9 cards!

There are only 70 cards in each deck, remember, and a Time trigger is always possible! (There are two in each deck).

The downside to this is that these multiple attacks also bring multiple possibilities for events and snipers, which can be good or bad.

I have had times where multiple attacks have ended up with two of my squads broken because of enemy snipers.

So it is a bit of a luck thing.

But more times than not it’s very useful.

As with all of the tips from here forward, it can be a bit situational.

If you have a juicy broken target that you just want to make sure dies, unload the fury of all your guns on them in one shot.

But just keep this tip in mind.

What I meant by Time being your friend until it’s not is when the Attacker takes a VP lead on you.

Now you don’t want it to end until you can do some damage and get back on the winning side.

Number 3: Smoke is your Friend. Except When it Isn’t

Let’s turn the tables a bit and now say that you are the attacker.

You are facing a solidly entrenched defender with heavy machine guns, the whole bit.

But you do have some artillery.

How about giving your guys some cover?

(Just ignore the red circles above. This is from a previous game)

The cool thing about artillery smoke is that it will cover a 7 hex area with beautiful smoke, obscuring your guys from the defenders waiting to unleash hell.

Even if you don’t have artillery, though, the Smoke Grenades action (referenced above) can give you some help if you’re crossing an open hex.

It doesn’t help if you’re crossing a huge field like in the above picture, but still.

Smoke will reduce enemy firepower going through it by the strength of the smoke.

Suddenly that 12 firepower HMG shot is only 4 because it’s going through an 8-smoke!

Of course, an unlucky breeze event will blow all of it away and you’re out in the open, sitting ducks.

No, I’m not bitter.

The other thing about smoke, especially smoke grenades, is when you want to cross that open street and move into melee against that HMG hex.

Adjacent, in an open road, against an HMG?

Your day will suck.

With smoke, though?

Not so much, if it’s high enough!

Of course, if you are up against a strong force, you may want to try and soften them up a bit before moving adjacent.

That’s when smoke can be bad, because suddenly you’re the one who wants high firepower and isn’t getting it.

That’s when you hope for a breeze and a Smoke Grenades action. Blow the smoke away, pound your opponent, then throw Smoke as your moving into the road.

Rarely happens, but it’s nice when it does!

Number 4: When moving through enemy fire, have a Recover card

Move orders let your guys move a fair distance across the battlefield.

If you’re on the attack, you need to do that!

But you’re going to take fire unless you’re out of range of their guns (like you are facing Conscripts or Italians).

When moving through the open, you always want to make sure you have a Recover card handy.

Inevitably, some of your guys will break and you want to be able to rally them immediately.

That’s the tough part about this game. You have to move!

Of course, they’re not guaranteed to rally. You may get some bad dice rolls and they sit there broken.

But you want the ability to do so.

Getting Recover cards can sometimes be hard. I’ve gone whole Time segments without getting one.

Seeing your broken units sit there under fire, sometimes breaking again and dying, can be really tough.

So make sure you have a Recover card.

The only time you wouldn’t do that is if you’re in desperation mode and you have to move or you’re not going to win this game.

A recent scenario of mine, I followed this rule very closely but was royally screwed by Lady Luck.

Three times, my Recover card was randomly (or intentionally) discarded by my opponent due to an Event (two Interrogation Events which makes you reveal your hand to your opponent and they decide a card for you to discard, and one Fog of War Event which has both players randomly discard a card, and mine happened to be my Recover).

Number 5: Make sure you have at least one Ambush card for melee

This one is even more situational than the “Recover card for moving” rule, mainly because sometimes you just need to take a chance.

A lot of times, you need to make that decisive jump into close combat with the enemy, trying to root them out of their fortifications.

You need an Advance card for that. You can’t just Move into an opponent’s hex.

When you get there, you want to guarantee the outcome as much as possible.

That’s where Ambush actions come in.

Ambushes force your opponent to break one unit in the hex, before the melee is resolved.

Of course, multiple Ambushes can make it so they all die and you don’t even have to resolve the melee.

It’s always good to have at least one going into a melee, though obviously that’s not always possible.

There is a decent non-zero chance that your opponent will have one, though sometimes you get lucky and they don’t.

I try not to get prepared for melee unless I have at least one Ambush, though sometimes Time is just passing too quickly and you have to go for broke.

If you have one?

Don’t use it to Fire unless you have to! (All Ambushes are Actions on Fire cards).

And furthermore…

Number 6: When to discard Recover and Ambush cards and when not to

Don’t discard them if there’s a chance for a melee coming up soon.

All nationalities have a Discard limit, where they can forego issuing Orders to instead discard some of the crap in their hand and draw new cards.

Sometimes you really need a card (a Move, Advance, Fire, whatever) or your hand is full of Command Confusion cards.

The only time I would discard an Ambush card is if there’s no chance of a melee any time soon (and in that case, I might use it as a Fire card if I have the opportunity).

If I have only one Recover card, it stays in my hand regardless.

When might I discard one?

If I had a hand like that.

Three Recover cards, you can probably stand to discard at least one.

I have had two Recover cards before, kind of clogging my Defense 4-card hand, and discarded one.

I sometimes have regretted it as soon as a couple of units break, I use the one and then I don’t see one for a long while.

But that’s why this is, again, situational.

If your hand size is 4, can you really afford to keep 2 cards in your hand that aren’t doing anything?

Especially when you need to fire on those guys who are advancing on you?

But never, ever, ever, EVER discard the only one you have.

You will regret that when your entire force is decimated before you see another one.

Number 7: When to use Initiative

Combat Commander has a neat Initiative system where you have a card and you can give it to the other player in order to reroll any roll.

Say your only leader (who happens to be broken) needs a 4 or higher to survive a fire attack and rolls a 2, thus dying.

The Initiative can save him!

(Of course, with my luck, my next roll will be a 3, but let’s just forget that for now).

It’s often tempting, when something goes bad, to use the Initiative to reroll it.

However, you need to calculate a few things.

First, is it worth it?

Sure, two of your guys may be dead, but you have ten more and your attack is still going strong. You still have two leaders, and you may want the Initiative later.

Don’t use it frivolously.

The second thing to calculate is the odds that it will make any difference.

In my leader example above, yes. It would make a difference.

The odds of drawing a 2 or 3 are pretty low (though I have beaten those odds!).

So it’s probably worth it (as long as the first calculation makes you decide to do it).

If you need a 10 or higher to succeed?

Probably not worth it.

Odds are you’ll fail anyway.

This comes up often when rolling for Sudden Death to see if the game will end.

If the Sudden Death trigger is at Time 7 or less (meaning you have to roll a 6 or lower), then it’s probably not worth it to try and reroll if you don’t succeed.

It’s unlikely you’ll succeed and, if you do, your opponent will give it right back to you for a reroll because of how unlikely it is that you will succeed again.

However, if you’re desperate (I will not survive another round!), then maybe you do it anyway.

Some people hold on to Initiative religiously, partially because it’s a tie-breaker at the end of the game (I have won a game that way recently) and partially to deny their opponent from having it available to them.

It’s all in your play style.

Just, as I said, don’t use it frivolously.

Number 8: Combined Orders – How to Coordinate?

It’s good to have a decent variety of cards in your hand to help you fulfill your objectives, whatever they are.

This is a pretty nice hand to have in the Defense posture.

You’ve got your Fire card for use when your opponent starts moving their guys to attack.

You’ve got the Sustained Fire Action to get +2 for that machine gun you’re using (though it could break!).

The Crossfire Action also helps against moving opponents, giving you another +2.

Finally, as broken bodies are littering the play area where the attack faltered, you have a Rout card to then force them all to move back toward their lines and away from you.

As an Attacker, a hand with a Move, Smoke Grenades (if your guys can use them), Recover (don’t forget the Recover!) and maybe a Fire card so that your other fire group can soften up the opposition is never a bad thing.

Try not to do things piecemeal if you can help it.

If you only have one Order in your hand you want to do, then maybe just discard instead (unless you would be discarding Recovers, of course!).

Try to have Orders in your hand to do a couple of actions, if you can.

Or at the very least Orders that can be modified with some of the Actions in your hand so you will still be using multiple cards.

I’ve done it many times, but it never feels good when you have a hand full of cards, not many of them that you want, and you only use one card and thus only draw one new card.

But again, sometimes you have to.

If the only Order you have that is useable is a Recover and you have a bunch of broken units, go ahead and rally those boys!

Or if you need to keep up the Fire pressure and your only good card is a Fire, maybe fire.

Unless…

Number 9: On Defense, always try to have a Fire card on your opponent’s turn

You know that your opponent needs to move to get into your positions.

The worst Combat Commander feeling in the world (ok, maybe just one of the worst) is when your opponent is making a massive move with almost all of their guys…and you don’t have a Fire card to stop it.

I have had guys run down the road past my major MG nest, getting into my rear and maybe off the board, while my MG sits there powerless because I don’t have a Fire card.

And I’ve cried.

If you have one Fire card and you are on Defense, do your best not to use it.

You may not draw one to replace it.

Number 10: Never Give Up

This is just a general Combat Commander rule for both players.

You can always concede the scenario if it seems hopeless for you to win.

If you’ve been bashing each other for 3 hours and it looks like you’re out of the running, it’s tempting to give up.

Take a second thought, though, and really weigh that decision.

It’s not as obvious as you might think.

This is Combat Commander, where a random Event or a Sniper could change everything.

Maybe you’ll get a Reinforcement Event that will bring you a new leader since you don’t have one anymore?

Maybe a sniper will take out an enemy that’s been in your path, preventing you from doing anything?

There have been more times than I can count where I’ve felt like the writing was on the wall and I wasn’t going to be able to win.

And then something happened to change all of that.

In a recent scenario, my Rumanians (using the Italian deck and counters) were on the ropes. The Soviets were advancing, there was tons of smoke around, and he only needed to kill a couple of my guys to cement things.

Suddenly, a Breeze event blew away all of the smoke, letting my big firegroup with a mortar unload on his big group of guys in the north.

I ended up breaking all of them, and then on one of my subsequent rolls (before he could Recover, which he did have in his hand), a KIA Event let me kill his leader.

The guys in the north were now leaderless and couldn’t be activated as a group anymore.

Now I was in the driver’s seat, but it was still a close one.

Then it turned the other way, with my opponent getting a Walking Wounded event, bringing out an eliminated unit into a random hex. The random hex happened to be an objective hex which gave him points.

Right as the game ended.

The total VP was a tie and I had Initiative, so I won!

See what happens?

Never give up, or at least make sure it’s completely hopeless before you give up.

I don’t know, maybe you have no leaders and you’re on the attack.

Something like that.

Those are my top 10 tips to give to novice Combat Commander players.

Anything I missed? It’s very possible I just left it out due to time (we’re at 3600 words here) but maybe I forgot about it?

Let me know in the comments.